My classmate from high school Eric Finkelman sent me this link to a video recording of Fay Webern from the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project saying, he had heard this song as a kid as well. Let this be the blog’s small contribution to the anti-Putin sentiment we all feel.
Tsar Nikolai, yob tvayu mat.* Zey nor mit veymen di host khasene gehat. A kurve, a blate, an oysgetrente shmate, Tsar Nikolai, yob tvayu mat!
Tsar Nikolai, go f__ your mother. Just see with whom you married. A thieving whore, a used up [sexually] rag Tsar Nikolai, go f__ your mother.
* In Cyrillic it’s ‘ëб твою мать’ (or the way she’s singing it – ‘ëб ваю мат’).
Baym tir fun gan-eydn / At the door of Paradise Sung by Mimi Erlich and Hasia Goldberg-Gering Ehrlich recorded by Itzik Gottesman at KlezKanada, St. Agathe, Quebec, approx. 2007; Gering-Goldberg recording from the Music Department of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, recorded 1980.
Courtesy of the Yiddish Book Center
“Baym tir fun gan-eydn” sung by Mimi Erlich
For Hasia Gering-Goldberg’s version, please click here and listen from 42:54 to 44:06.
Commentary by Itzik Gottesman
My interest in this song began when Mimi Erlich z”l, a teacher and accomplished musician, approached me while waiting for dinner outside the dining hall at the KlezKanada festival. She sang what she remembered from her mother. Erlich recently passed and and in her memory I put this blog together. A video interview with her can be found at the Wexler Oral History Project at the Yiddish Book Center.
A fine recording of the song by Hasya Gering-Goldberg is from the on-line holdings of the Music Department at the National Library in Jerusalem. It is more complete than Erlich’s though the second verse is cut-off. I have transcribed and translated the versions of Gering-Goldberg and Erlich. The music and words of one verse of a similar version can be found in Abraham Idelsohn’s monumental Thesaurus of Hebrew-Oriental Melodies (1914-1932), Volume 9, #724 (please see scans below). Several texts were sent to A. Forsher for his column “Pearls of the Yiddish Poets” in the Forverts newspaper (scans below). But so far the authorship of this song has not been found. In a poetry collection of Aron Kriwitzky he includes a longer, fuller text for the song (below).
So we have 6 variants of the song, all of them from Lithuania:
1) Idelsohn vol. 9, text and music. 2 & 3) In the “Perl” column Jan. 23, 1972, second section page 13. there is a version by Paula Segal and one by Henye Shenkman. 4) Erlich, recording. 5) Goldberg-Gering, recording. 6) The extended version found in Aron Kriwitzky’s collection.
Thanks to Yiddish teacher and researcher Eliezer Niborski for finding the Goldberg-Gering recording and the text in Aron Kriwitzky’s poetry collection. Thanks also to Jill Horowitz, friend of Mimi Erlich, and to Gila Flam, head of the Music Deptartment at the National Library, Jerusalem.
Verson of Hasia Goldberg-Gering (חסיה גולדברג-גרינג)
“Der gan-eydn” [ spoken: “Paradise”]
Baym tir fun gan-eydn shteyen malokhim on a shir. Mentshn viln arayngeyn reydn nor men halt zey op bay der tir.
At the door to paradise stand many angels. People want to enter and speak but they are stopped at the door.
Mikhoyl, Gavril haltn di bikher. Me leyent zey for zeyer zind. Un yeder eyner vil vos gikher in gan-eydn arayn geshvind.
Michael, Gabriel are keeping the books. They read their sins to them . And everyone wants, as fast as possible, to enter paradise quickly.
Nor me shtupt zey op mit beyde hent. Men farmakht far zey di tir. “Geyt in gehenem un vert farbrent. Der gan-eydn iz nit far dir!”
But they are pushed away with both hands. The door is closed for them. “Go to hell and burn: Paradise is not for you!”
Kumt tsu geyn a kheynevdike yidene mit a horband a reytn, mit korbn-minkhes* un mit siderlekh farshidene un mit a kop a bloyzn.
A charming woman arrives with a red headband, with korbn-minkhes* and various prayer books, and with an uncovered head.
Avek fun danet du arura Du host zikh gefirt fardorbn.
Away from here you cursed women. You led a corrupted life
Korbn-minkhe* : a woman’s prayer book written in Yiddish.
From Abraham Idelsohn, Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies (1914-1932), Vol 9, #724:
From A. Forsher’s column “Pearls of the Yiddish Poets” in the Forverts, Jan. 23, 1972, second section, page 13. Presenting versions from Paula Segal and Henye Shenkman:
From Aron Kriwitzky’s Collection (published in Israel):
Di apikorsim (“The Heretics”) was the first song that Lifshe Schaechter-Widman (LSW) sang for collector Leybl Kahn in NYC in 1954. He recorded approximately 100 songs sung by LSW over the next few weeks or months. LSW is my grandmother and the child one hears in the background is my then 4-year old sister Taube. At one point during her singing, she gets up and runs after her. The spoken dialogue between LSW and Kahn is transcribed in the Yiddish text.
In Shloyme Prizament’s book Di broder zinger (Buenos-Aires, 1960), he has a version of this song with the music on pages 110-112. He writes that he wrote the words and music, and states that Pepi Litman recorded it. There is indeed a recording of Pepi Litman performing the song. This book can now be read and downloaded at the Yiddish Book Center website.
Shloyme Prizament was born in 1889 in Hibinev, Galicia and died in Buenos-Aires in 1973; his biography appears in the third volume of the “Leksikon fun yidishn teater”, pages 1873- 1876. Prizament was an amazingly prolific composer, songwriter, but I am not convinced that he wrote the song that LSW performs. The more likely scenario, in my opinion, is that he based his song on the popular current version that LSW sings.
The song itself, a maskilic song mocking the Hasidim but sung in the voice of true believers, was a common genre. However, in Apikorsim the humor is quite vulgar. In songs such as “Kum aher du filosof” the irony is much more subtle. Ruth Rubin’s book Voices of a People has a nice section on maskilic songs (chapter 10). Rubin also prints Velvl Zbarzher’s song “Moshiakh’s tsaytn” (pp. 255 – 257) which is on the same theme as di apikorsim.
A couple of comments on the words and rhymes of Apikorsim: “Daytshn” literally means “Germans”, but in the Yiddish of the 19th century, early 20th century, it referred to the Maskilim, the Jews who were assimilating and dressing like Germans – that is, as modern Europeans.
You will also hear that in the refrain which begins “Folgts daytshn…” there is no rhyme for gikh. LSW sings sheyn. The implied rhyme should be rikh – the devil, and my mother remembers LSW singing it vet ir oyszen vi a layt or oyszen vi a rikh so i put those options in brackets. The listener would have understood the implied rhyme gikh and rikh.
Di apikorsim, di voyle-yingen es vet in zey ale trasken lingen zey veln ale tsepiket vern ven zey veln shoyfer-shel-moshiakh derhern.
The heretics, those loose fellows, Their lungs will all rattle. They will burst apart, when they hear the shofar of the messiah.
Far kol-rom vet vern gehert der rebe vet lernen toyre. Di apikorsim veln faln tsu dr’erd far shrek un far moyre.
Loudly for all, it will be heard the rebbe will teach Torah. the heretics will fall to the ground, out of fear and alarm.
Folgts datshn mekh, un verts khasidemlekh gikh. Tits un a yeyder yidishe kleyder vet ir oyszen sheyn [vi a layt] [vi a rikh]/
Listen to me Germans [assimilated Jews] and become Hasidim quickly. Each of you dress in Jewish clothes, so you will appear – beautiful [vi a layt – presentable] [vi a rikh – like a demon]
Yiddish Song of the Week 